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ashwagandha; ginseng; genotype 9 environment interaction; stability analysis; total alkaloid content.

The present study was undertaken to delineate genotype–environment interactions and stability status of 16 genotypes of ashwagandha (Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal) in context to the 12 characters, namely plant height, number of primary branches, number of secondary branches, days to flowering, days to maturity, number of berries, number of seeds/berry, root length, root diameter, root branches, dry root yield and total alkaloid content (%). Experiment was carried out in a randomized complete block design with three replicationsover three different locations (S. K. Nagar, Jagudan and Bhiloda) in north Gujarat for three years (2016–17, 2017–18 and 2018–19). Pooled analysis of variance revealed that the mean squares due to genotypes and genotype 9 environment interaction along with linear and nonlinear components were highly significant (P<0.01) for most of the traits under study. Stability parameters for component traits through Eberhart and Russell model showed that genotypes that can be used directly in breeding programme are SKA-4 for early flowering, SKA-21 for early maturity and SKA-1, SKA-4, SKA-6 and SKA-17 for shorter plant height. Further, SKA-21 could be used for improving number of primary branches per plant, SKA-11 and SKA-17 for number of secondary branches per plant, SKA-19 for number of berries per plant, SKA-6, SKA-21, SKA-27 and AWS-1 for root branches and SKA-17 for root length as these genotypes were found to be moststable across the environments for mentioned traits. The result revealed that some reliable predictions about genotype 9 environment interaction and its unpredictable components were involved significantly in determining the stability of genotypes. Hence, the present investigation can be exploited for the identification of more productive genotypes in specific environments, leading to significant increase in root productivity of ashwagandha.

MITHLESH KUMAR¹ MANUBHAI PATEL¹ RAVINDRASINGH CHAUHAN¹ CHANDRESH TANK¹ SATYANARAYAN SOLANKI¹ PRAVINBHAI PATEL¹ HITENDRA BHADAURIA¹ RAMAN GAMI² KAREN PACHCHIGAR¹ NISHIT SONI¹ PRANAY PATEL¹ ANUJ SINGH¹ NITIN PATEL¹ RAMESH PATEL²

1. Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, C. P. College of Agriculture, Sardarkrushinagar Dantiwada Agricultural University, Sardarkrushinagar 385 506, India
2. Maize Research Station, Sardarkrushinagar Dantiwada Agricultural University, Bhiloda 383 245, India

Published

2 July 2020

Manuscript received

9 December 2019

Manuscript revised

18 February 2020

Accepted

9 March 2020